The government has revised the sanitation law with the intention to define clearly the classification system of fines for individuals and groups who fail to dispose of rubbish properly and follow the collection schedule.
The law decree was approved in 2009, but was not adequately implemented, particularly in the application of fines due to there being no clear classification system.
President of the Dili Municipality Authority Gaspar Soares said that under the original law those that failed to comply were subject to fines between $5 and up to $500, while those identified collectively could be fined double, but the system was unclear.
“If we say $5 to $500, what is the classification? Who will receive a $5 [fine] and who will receive $500 when there is no clear definition?” said Soares.
“It should be clear, otherwise we apply [fines] arbitrarily and this can lead to other problems so we must mention a clear [system of] classification.”
In 2015, the government released a regular schedule for rubbish collection and also raised awareness to communities, but people continued to discard waste arbitrarily.
Rubbish collection is scheduled between 4.30am to 7am each morning, but communities continue to dispose of waste throughout the day, which is then dispersed around the neighborhood by scavenging animals.
However, he acknowledged that the sanitation team did not collect rubbish from some neighborhood due to limited human resources and the high volume of waste on a daily basis.
For that reason, he said the government is now considering handing over the management of waste and used motor oil to the private sector.
“We are planning to handover to the private sector because at the moment it is handled by the Dili sanitation team and they are public servants, so they are not working on their days off (weekends and public holidays),” he said.
Meanwhile, head of the Surveillance and Environment Department in the Ministry of Health, Tomasia de Sousa acknowledged, that it was difficult to mobilize communities in Dili because they came from many different backgrounds.
“The suku (village) chiefs should apply a regulation (tarabandu), so that communities don’t just discard rubbish arbitrarily. I think this is more effective,” she said.
“I disagree with weekly cleaning because we do the cleaning and people are still discarding rubbish.”
She said dengue also continued to plague communities around Dili, especially children, due to poor sanitation and a lack of integrated preventative action from the ministries.
Meanwhile, Kaikoli village chief Hipolito Marques said although weekly cleaning was conducted in communities, little progress had been made in terms of improving public sanitation.
“The cleaning service is contained in our (annual) plan and we do weekly cleaning in the suku and on a monthly basis along public roads,” he said.
Regarding the regulation (tarabandu), he said it should be discussed further with all communities.
